Making hat-bodies



lwork better.

UNiTEn sTATEs PATENT oEEioE.

ANDREW RANKIN, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

MAKING HAT-B ODIES.

Specification of Letters Patent N o. 11,756, dated October 3, 1854.

To all whom z' may concern:

Be it known that I, ANDREW RANKIN, of Newark, in the county of Essex andState of New Jersey, have invented certain. new and useful Improvementsin the Manufacture of Hat Bodies, Naps, &c., and that the following is afull, clear, and exact description of the principle or character whichdistinguishes them fromall other things before known, and of the usualmanner of making, modifying, and using the same.

My method of forming hat bodies is, by first making the hats, and thensetting them up, as is practised in hand making; in fact I follow allthe processes of hand work in making hats; but I employ machinerytherefor, so that a girl or boy can perform more labor than ajourneyman, and do the My apparatus is constructed as follows: Figure l,showing a vert-ical section through the machine. In a proper frame (a,)I place a suitable endless feeding apron (6,) such as is used forsimilar purposes upon fur-blowing machines; on this apron is placed aproper quantity of fur by weight, for a hat, which by the revolution ofthe apron is fed forward, and passes between two small rollers (c), andthen is it opened up and picked by a rapidly revolving cylinder, (03,)just in front of said rollers; this cylinder is armed with rows ofstraight small wire teeth, and it differs from other similar pickercylinders, in having deep flutes cut in it between the rows of teeth,

l which causes it to act more effectually upon the fur at this point;beneath, and at a little distance from this cylinder, there is a wiregauze or grating (d), through which the dust and coarse hairs aredriven, and separated from the fur, they fall below; the fur is thrownfrom the cylinder (CL) forward upon a second endless apron (6,), overwhich there is a cover of wire gauze (e,) to prevent the fur fromblowing away; it passes forward between a second pair of feeding rollers(f,), and is brought in contact with another rapidly revolving pickingcylinder (g,); this cylinder is still different from thev first, beinghollow, with staves extending from end to end, a little distance apart,so as to afford a greater current of air outward than the first, and itis armed with teeth in a similar manner; this opens up the fur, throwinginto conductors, (h,) through which it descends into the next story ofthe building in which it is situated; aboutl half way the conductorthere is a bowing apparatus, whichmay consist of a shaft (1,) with armsprojecting `from it near either end; there are strings stretched fromthe arms at one end to those at the other, as many in number as thereare arms (in the drawing four), these form the bow strings, reachingfrom side to side of the conducto-r; as the shaft is turned, thesestrings revolve around it, and each in succession strikes a pin,performing upon the falling fur the same operation as` the hand bow; thefur is guided to the center of the conductor by a hopper, (h,) placedabove the bow so as to cause it to be struck by the string at the pointo-f greatest vibration; from thence the fur descends to the formerbelow. A modification of this bowing apparatus, is to place a row ofstrings across, from side to side of the conductor attaching themthereto, and passing their ends throu h the sides of the conduct-or, soas to strain them tight; these strings are struck by a pin on arevolving wheel, as shown in F ig. 2. The conductor rests with its lowerend on a chest (z',) which is a chamber of sufficient size for thepurpose intended; there is a door (77,) in this chest on.` each side andopposite to each other; these doors are for the purpose of admitting asuccession of` hurdles (70,) to slide into the chest horizonally, thehurdles being for the purpose of forming the bats upon; it isconstructed as follows: a piece of wire gauze is stretched upon a frame(v,) see F ig. 3, and over this is stretched a piece of paper,large'enough to cover it; upon this paper I draw two lines, at rightangles to each other, and crossing in the center, from this guide, I cutout the paper to form curves, shown by black lines (fr), in Fig. 3,which is the proper shape for two bats, such as are made by hand, andenough for one hat body. It is necessary t-o make these bats thicker inthe part to form the rim than elsewhere, and the edges mustA graduallydiminish in thickness for purposes hereafter seen; to effect thesemodifications of thickness, I resort to the following means: I put allaround the edge of the paper, at (a) a thin strip of silk, shown by redlines (see A, Fig. 3,) extending inward from the paper about half aninch; over this I put another wider piece, that reaches further inward;and again a `logs third, fourth, or more layers, each piece bethey arepricked do-wn withk the hattersV ing carried further inward so as tomake Va regular gradation of thicknesses; the effect of which is, themore layers of silk there are, the less proportionally will be thequantity of fur deposited upon the parts covered; over all these I put apiece of silk, covering the whole space, except that part (y) which isto form the rim of the hat, over all this should be another wire gauze,

and the hurdle is ready for' use; when slipped into place, it issurrounded by a paper guide (L) aiiixed to the upper edges of the chest,and the lower edges brought into the form of the bats; this arrangementadmits ofany variety of form of bats, being made in the same machine;below the hurdle there is an exhaust fan at (01%,) and a pipel terial asthe fur is entirely inclosed, which is not the case with any otherknown'ma-` chine for making hats; the bats, when' withdrawn from thechest upon a table, where lbasket, and covered with a damp yclothparatus is constructed as; follows: I form av Y whichY adheres to thebats that are thus taken upand removedto a hardening table; as onehurdleis taken out of the machine, another is put in, so as to continuethe operation; at the hardening table,six bats, more or less,

are hardened ataftime by a friction board, and then the bats are takenthrough the process of sett-ing up, for which my apchest, or close tableshown at Fig. 4; this table has anrelevation (05,) at its rear end,which extends up, covering a portion of'a window, as shown in thedrawing; on the front and level part of the t-able Vthere Vis atransparent cone, made of glass or other suitable material, thistransparent cone is placed over an opening through the table top,r

and can be revolved by the operative at will, moving on frictionArollers; the interior surface of the table is colored white, for thebetter reflection of light; a dark uurtainVV hangs at the window above,that can be raised or lowered, so as to darken the room as required. Theoperative takes one of the bats after it has been formed as above de`scribed, and trimmed, and irstdampening the glass cone with a wetsponge, puts the bat around, covering` somewhat more than half Vof thecone, and bringing itv smoothly down into place, ,the ycone isthenturned around, and the other bat put on and united down to it; the darkcurtain is then dropped and the light only admitted from below throughthe glass cone, which atonce ydiscovers to the workman the thin places,which are stopping olf by putting small pieces of fur upon them; andafter the body is made equal in thickness and perfect,fa damp cloth isput around it, and avsmall piece on the top, then a stout felt cone isdropped down upon it; two studs pro-ject, one from either side of thiscone; and to them two arms or pitmans V(0,) are attached, which extendback to alcrankmshaft (29,), on which the two cranks are opposite toeach other, so

that by its revolution itcauses the conical I felt to make a shortvibratory revolution on the axis of the cone, and by the friction thusproduced, the body is suiiiciently hardcned; the advantages of this modeof procedure are obvious, and highly yimportant toy y a personthoroughly acquainted with the manufacture, either of 'hand ormachinery, as heretofore conducted; the ordinary and only mode ofsetting up a body with two bats, is to lay a piece of paper, cut to theproper shape, upon one bat, and then fold over carefully the edges ofthe bat; another bat is then laid upon them and worked down a little;they are then turned over,andthe edges of the other bat is folded over,and the whole united; then it is carefully raised, and by lookingthrough it from the interior, the thin plac'es are stopped oif, a workof some care and difficulty that is obviated by my glass cone. Andagain, in machine made hats that are Vformed on a wiregauze cone, theyhave toy be submerged in water before they can be removed; thismaterially injures the stock, for the reason that it washes out thechemical preparation with which it is prepared before felting, andrenders it comparatively unfit for felting; but in my process I wet nofurther than is done by the damp cloth, in which it is Ahardenedsufficient to be taken off uninjured. Y

The naps are @formed in a manner similar to the bodies, the wholeapparatus being the same, except kthe hurdle, for Vwhich an endless beltis substituted, as shown in Fig. 5; this endless belt or apro-n l(a,)risperforated, atl` proper intervals, with oval or circular holes, 'eachofsufficient size for two orV four,`more or less plates, whichperforations are covered with mire gauze; when one of these spaces isbrought under the conductor and receives its quantum of fur for a flakeof nap, it is run out, and another brought under in its place, the firstpassing out over a table at (5,), when a friction board (6,) is broughtdown upon it; this friction board is moved back and forth in short quickvibrations .till the flake is sufficiently hardened, by means of apitman (d,) connecting it with a short crank (a), turned with anyconvenient power.

I-Iaving thus fully describedk my new apparatus for making hat bodiesand naps,

10 layers of silk or other material between the upper and lowerperforated material around the edges as described.

3. I also claim the employment of the transparent Cone for setting upand stopping oil' hat bodies, as herein specified.

ANDREW RANKIN.

Witnesses:

HENRY D. I-IEDDEN, wWM. N. CARR.

